I almost had a conniption fit (an old Southern saying for you folks from other places) when I read this on the online San Antonio Express News site.
Look up for a new way to move freight along I-35
Imagine driving along Interstate 35 with almost no long-haul truck traffic, at least not on road level.
But look up and there would be the trucks — at least the containers and trailers — whizzing along just above the passenger cars on elevated, electric-powered conveyor lanes, at 60 mph with no drivers.
Imagine this freight conveyor extending from Dallas to Monterrey, Mexico, more than 530 miles, with entry and exit points in or near each large city along the route, including San Antonio.
That could be the future of North American Free Trade Agreement trade and other freight movement in Texas if a Dallas company’s dream comes true.
The company is Freight Shuttle International. Since 2005, Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute Assistant Director Stephen Roop has been designing the project for the company.
The project now is under study by the Texas Department of Transportation as the lone response to a request for proposals issued by TxDOT last year. If TxDOT determines the project is safe and doesn’t interfere with other TxDOT planned projects, the agency could lease highway right of way to Freight Shuttle, spokeswoman Kelli Petras said.
Freight Shuttle, in the meantime, first wants to build a small demonstration project to show the project is viable before tackling I-35 and other long-distance systems. Roop said two possible demonstration projects are 10 miles between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and another involving the congested seaport of Long Beach, Calif.
Roop stressed this: No taxpayer money would be involved. Freight Shuttle doesn’t want it. Taxpayers would win because congestion would be reduced, taking pressure off the need to widen highways. Less highway damage from trucks reduces maintenance costs.
The system is highly flexible, Roop said. The elevated lanes could be built over overpasses and around cloverleaf interchanges. Technology for spanning rivers is figured out. Cost to build is about $10 million to $11 million per mile.
Individual and institutional investors are being organized into consortiums to finance each potential route. The consortiums will issue debt and equity, with the system’s revenues servicing the debt, Roop said.
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Numerous construction sites could be created along the route for a relatively quick construction period. The electric conveyor would have steel wheels rolling on steel tracks.
Freight Shuttle believes shippers will prefer the conveyor system because it would save time and improve reliability. Truck drivers? A shortage of truck drivers already is acute, Roop said.
The environmental benefit is evident. Fewer diesel tractors on the road plus less congestion equal drastically reduced emissions.
International freight could cross the Texas-Mexico border without inspection because it could be bonded, sealed and pre-cleared prior to shipment, Roop said.
The system has been outlined in presentations recently to the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce‘s transportation committee.
“There wasn’t anything not to like about it,” said Scott Ericksen, the MPO public involvement supervisor.
Is this system only a step away from passenger rail in Texas? Not necessarily. Freight Shuttle has no interest in moving people. Freight doesn’t use the restroom, get sick, eat food or need Wi-Fi, Roop said.
Freight also doesn’t complain about traffic. If this system is built someday, fewer drivers will gripe, too, because trucks will be off the road.
Well, you can imagine my astonishment at a story like this. What idiocy. Does the person who wrote this (a D Hendricks) know the history of railroads? Does he/she know how many there were? I couldn’t help myself, I did NOT call them an idiot, I wanted to get it published, but I did write this comment at the site:
Imagine driving down any highway 30 years ago, well make that 50, there were not many trucks on the highway but along most of the highways were railroad tracks. Imagine that. I would love to see the trucking industry back on the railroad tracks, unfortunately many are abandoned and the rails removed and the land given back to the adjacent landowners, some are bike and hike trails but most are no longer owned by any railroad. BRING BACK THE TRAINS. We don’t need a new overhead railroad type system, we need to reinstate the old system.
